Michael Leitch Embraces Change to Drive Team Growth

The goal is a fifth World Cup appearance!
The brave men who supported Japan’s rapid rise to the top have left one after another, but this man is still with us,
But this man is still here.

Head coach Eddie Jones (64, hereafter HC) has returned to the Japanese national rugby team after a nine-year absence.

Although the team has a record of winning a historic three matches against strong teams, including South Africa, which has won the World Cup in England in 2003, the team lost all three test matches from June 22 to July 21 this year.

Fans are giving him a hard time, but Leach Michael (35), who has been entrusted with the captaincy by the famous captain, said, “This is not the end of the story. We will definitely get results at the World Cup in 2007.

When I interviewed him in mid-July, he praised the young players who have been selected for the national team this year and spoke of his own fulfillment.

He said, “In the past (young players) were more nervous, but today’s young players can talk. （There is not so much of a gap (between the older and younger members). I don’t feel my age either.

He came to Japan 20 years ago at the age of 15. After graduating from Sapporo Yamanote High School and Tokai University, he joined the Toshiba Brave Lupus (now Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo). He became a Japanese citizen in 2001, and has participated in four consecutive quadrennial World Cup tournaments until the ’23 tournament.

He is expected to make his fifth appearance in Australia in ’27, a first for Japan, but he focuses only on his own day-to-day progress. I want to grow even a little bit more than I did yesterday,” he said.

If I don’t change, the team can’t grow. So right now, I am trying to do my best every day, day in and day out.

At one point, he was considering retiring early. Around the time of Japan’s first top 8 finish in 2007, his condition and performance were declining due to a hip injury and other problems. If I can’t compete at the top level, I’ll get off the stage. …… He discussed this with his wife, whom he met while at Tokai University.

I told her, ‘I’ll be finished at 33. By then, I wanted to create a system where I would not have to worry about money even after I retired. We also discussed whether we would stay in Japan or return to New Zealand, considering the education of our children.

But those plans were rewritten. In 2008, when official matches were cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis, he underwent surgery on all of his broken parts. After that, he pushed himself hard to regain his athleticism and sharpness, and last fall, he successfully made his fourth trip to the World Cup. After returning to Japan, he became the captain of Toshiba for the first time in 10 years and led the team to Japan’s first national championship in 14 seasons in the country’s top “League One”.

This time, he is tackling a new challenge for the national team. In addition to his familiar roles of flanker and number eight in the third row of forwards (FW), he also doubles as a lock (LO) in the second row. This was HC Jones’ suggestion.

The LOs are in the middle of the mass of the 8-8 scrum, so they are more vulnerable to the weight of their surroundings than the FW third row. Moreover, his reach is nadir, making it difficult for him to push his teammates in the front row satisfactorily. For this reason, when he tried it as a student, he said, “I thought I would never be able to do it.” In 2009, the national staff at the time recommended him to play LO, and he almost turned down the call-up.

On June 22, he played at LO from the middle of the second half against England, and on July 13, he started at LO against Georgia.

I felt like I couldn’t do it on the first day, but I got better in the next session and the next session, and I think I can definitely do it ……. If I can play LO, my range of play will expand, and I should be able to play at the forefront for about five more years.

His teammates who beat South Africa at the World Cup in 2003, including Ayumi Goromaru (38), Shiro Tanaka (39), and Shota Horie (38), have already retired from active duty. However, Leach is still at the forefront. His promise to Horie, whom he knows well, to “go to India together” will not be realized for a long time to come. The tennis greats that his eldest daughter, a fifth-grader, is learning to play have been playing for a long time.

Roger Federer played until he was 41. Roger Federer played until he was 41, and Novak Djokovic is still playing at 37. They are role models for me.”

He is away from home for long periods of time on tour and at training camps, but he is grateful that his family understands his situation, saying, “I wouldn’t have made it this far without them. He wants his children to receive a good education, and has given his eldest daughter daily tutoring in order to prepare her for the junior high school entrance exam, which she hopes to enter.

Dad’s not [home] all the time, so I’ll …… do whatever I can to make up for that.”

Even as his colleagues get younger, the role required of Leach remains the same.

From “FRIDAY” August 16, 2024 issue